New Fleetwood Mac Boxes: "1973-1974" (vinyl) "1969-1974" (CD) (September 4,2020)

I know there's a separate thread but R.I.P. to Martin Birch who worked with The Mac between Then Play On and Mystery to me. Great producer.

Fleetwood Mac

• 1969 – Then Play On (engineer)
• 1970 – Kiln House (engineer)
• 1972 – Bare Trees (engineer)
• 1973 – Penguin (producer, engineer, mixing)
• 1973 – Mystery to Me (producer, engineer, guitar)

 

Looks like it went down to $46.99 on Amazon either today or sometime over the weekend...

 

Finally ordered it for this. That's a good price. I may end up with the LP set too, but interested to get those fine bonus tracks first!

 

I've spent the past couple of weeks really immersing myself in Fleetwood Mac in preparation for this great set, which I am highly anticipating. I listened to every single Fleetwood Mac album from beginning to end, some of them for the first time ever. It has been an extremely interesting and enjoyable experience. I came to Fleetwood Mac through the most famous lineup but I have always enjoyed what I have heard of the earlier period(s) and now that I am fully familiar I have decided that the Wilderness Years are my absolute favorite.

Here's my ranking of it all in brief, if anyone is interested:

17. Behind the Mask (1990): A dreadful album of tuneless, bland MOR garbage.
16. Mr. Wonderful (1968): I love PG-era material but this album just misses out on their magic. I wish I liked it more.
15. Time (1995): Barely sounds like Fleetwood Mac, which is a weird thing to say considering all the changes they've gone through. This feels like a real outlier though. Mick's spoken word is awful.
14. Tango in the Night (1987): Too glossy and shiny and Stevie is completely checked out, but a few good tunes.
13. Mirage (1982): Another glossy MOR album, but some excellent songwriting. Gypsy is fantastic.
12. Say You Will (2003): Chris is sorely missed and it feels like two solo albums grafted together (and way too long), but some great tunes like Peacekeeper and Thrown Down.
11. Penguin (1973): Not really a bad album. Mostly just kind of unfocused and too many cooks (why was Dave Walker necessary?). 'Did You Ever Love Me' is great though.
10. Kiln House (1970): Jeremy Spencer is my second least favorite writer to have ever been in FM (Billy Burnette is dead last) so his stuff doesn't hit me. Kirwan's songs are fantastic, especially Station Man.
09. Heroes Are Hard to Find (1974): Kind of forgotten about. Dreadful cover, but Welch and Christine worked well together. I love this Angel more than the one on Tusk.
08. Fleetwood Mac (1968): Great playing and feel from Peter Green and a classic British blues album.
07. Fleetwood Mac (1975): Funny that Stevie got in the band because of Lindsey because I think she brought better songs than him. Landslide is immortal.
06. Rumours (1977): It sold a trillion copies for a reason. Perfect pop album. Silver Springs should have made it, though.
05. Tusk (1979): Stevie Nicks' stuff on this album is the best material of her entire career. Beautiful music that I love. Christine's work is lovely (especially the sensual Brown Eyes). Lindsey's is wacky. I'm so glad they made this album.
04. Mystery to Me (1973): Hypnotized is perfect. The whole album gels so beautifully. Warm, earthy, gently evocative.
03. Then Play On (1969): This isn't just a blues album. There is something magical and and poetic going on here. Peter Green's masterpiece.
02. Future Games (1971): The Kirwan/Welch/C. McVie team is my favorite. It is blues influenced but not blues; pop influenced without being pop. It's just got a feel. Sands of Time is a tour de force.
01. Bare Trees (1972): I put it #1 even with the old lady monologue. Beautiful songs, beautiful emotion, beautiful feeling.

There is just something about the mid-period albums. A certain kind of sweet beauty. Poor Bob Welch. He did amazing work with Fleetwood Mac and deserves more credit. Danny Kirwan was also just plain amazing. And I've got to say that listening to the catalog all the way through--Christine McVie has really been a rock for this group. She contributed at least 50 songs to Fleetwood Mac over the years and the vast majority of them are classy, beautiful, well-written gems. It's sad that some fans of the Buckingham/Nicks lineup who love Chris' songs from that period have never checked out songs like Spare Me a Little of Your Love or Show Me a Smile or Just Crazy Love.

I can't wait to add these special albums to my collection. Another major 2020 musical discovery for me! It's been a year of new loves for me.

 

And even if the price somehow goes back up (which it likely won't--it may drop even further between now & Sept 4th), this is the most you'll pay for it when Amazon charges your card (or you'll get a credit for the difference afterwards). Not bad,especially if you have Prime. Looking forward to getting this & the Goat's Head Soup remaster for Labor Day weekend...

 

I submitted the lower price at importCD to Amazon last week. Glad to see they lowered it somewhat. I resubmitted the lower price again today. Everyone should do the same and see if they match it. $15 is still a pretty big spread.

 

CD set will be an insta-buy for me

 

aaaaaaand… ORDERED!

 

Yea, price seemed to go down right after i ordered on importCD - $37.44 shipped - and cancelled my amazon order.

 

Does importCD bill your credit card when ordered, or when shipped? TIA

 

From Then Play On through Tango, I have original promo copies. I think there's only 2 I don't have....the sound on all is amazing with only Mystery To Me slightly less so because of its long playing time. Will be interesting to see reviews of the sound in the new set.

 

When they ship if it’s by CC.

 

You have Jeremy at his most uninspired, which includes playing what is basically the same song four times, but this album also includes "Stop Messin' Round", "Rollin' Man" and "Love That Burns", three stone cold P.G. classics with plenty "magic", that would outweigh almost anything.

It's not really weird that it barely sounds like Fleetwood Mac because it barely is. Christine had actually left before this album (but they talked her into coming back, her songs were recorded separate form the rest), and they did a tour before the album (which is weird in itself) without her which I saw them on, so the band was fronted by Bekka Bramlett, Billy Burnette and Dave Mason and half the set was covers of outside material... I've said on previous occasions, defending line-ups, that as long as Mick and John is in the band it's Fleetwood Mac, but that was not Fleetwood Mac...

Also, as far as I'm aware, there is only one Fleetwood Mac album on which she doesn't appear at all (the first, "dog & dustbin"), which is pretty cool.

 

I just got in the Very Best of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac to scoop up those non-album tracks. Oh my goodness. What a stunning set. I am reminded again of how special they were. I think I rate Mr. Wonderful low just out of sheer disappointment because I know what they were like when they were at their best. The way I feel when I listen to Man of the World or Albatross...it's right in the heart.

Also, this was my first time hearing Dragonfly which stunned me! Danny Kirwan was the man. And a bonus cut of Chris singing I'd Rather Go Blind with Chicken Shack, wonderful to have.

 

We must have different sales tax - I just ordered and it’s $36.09. That’s less than $5 per CD!

 

I did something similar. I ordered Original Album Classics that includes the first album, Mr. Wonderful, and Pious Bird of Good Omen so it felt a bit more complete once the new set arrives.

Not being a huge early Mac fan, I had never heard Dragonfly before until Bernie Marsden covered it on his last album. Loved his version and then found out it was a cover. Wonderful song! (The original and the cover.)

 

That is the best single disc compilation, and is essential for some of those stray songs.

Try listening to just the Peter songs (so every other song), and maybe then I hope you'll see that those are pretty good (although even he has some of his perhaps least inspired moments here, but that still means that it's very good). I'm not putting down Jeremy, I think he is great on the first album, I don't know what happened here, he just ran out of steam and switched to autpilot completely. The production of the album (a misguided experiment) also works against it.

"Dragonfly" has always been one of my favourite songs of theirs, I was lucky in that my very first FM album (German 70s Best Of on Reprise) included it, so I heard it from the start. The Chicken Shack song is a bit out of place, but it's good, like I said Christine was a part of things even at that point, so she gets some representation that way.

 

Couldn't agree more. Far better singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist than that other woman in the band.

 

This other woman in the band?:

 

I love Stevie too. In fact, is there a band that had more amazing songwriters in it than Fleetwood Mac did over the years? Green, Kirwan, Welch, McVie, Nicks, Buckingham... I would classify all six of them as great songwriters. Spencer had a few good ones as well.

I have to thank the powers that be for putting together this box set, as it was the catalyst to finally getting me to fall head over heels for this band from beginning to end. Peter Green's death was awful timing. Just when I find him, there he goes... RIP Peter.

 

I'm on the fence about this. The $36.99 price tag from Import CD's is tempting. However, I'm suffering from Boxset fatigue.

 

I took the plunge at importCD. At less than $5 a disc you cannot beat that.

 

I posted the youtube link to BBCs Rock Family Trees earlier in this thread as pretty sure its the only place where both Bob's Welch and Weston are interviewed about their time in the band. The problem with youtube being the episode is split up into several different chunks.

Well.......... here is the full episode as one via Vimeo. Probably the best coverage of this 69-74 era that you'll see in a F.Mac documentary.

 

just ordered an autographed copy through her own THEJENNYBOYD.COM site !

 

Thank you. Today I just got mine. It is Columbia 460704 9. It is the 1998 SBM version. It is copyrighted under Sony Music UK. It differs from your release BUT part one runs at 2:21 and part two runs at 5:37 (even though the cover states part 1 at 3:28) The instrumental does NOT repeat. FINALLY I get what everyone is talking about!! Yay.